CCE EnSuite 2.0 Supports Point Cloud Files

An interesting announcement was recently (May 6, 2008) made by CCE Farmington Hills, MI, a leading provider of CAD/CAM data translation and viewer products.

There was announced that their EnSuite Version 2 has been upgraded to support point cloud files. A short reminder: EnSuite is a multi-CAD viewing, translation and productivity software.

 EnSuite Version 2 can be used to import point cloud files in .xyz and .csv files. These types of files are typically being produced on a coordinate measuring machine (CMM), laser scanner, or other inspection equipment.

About CCE CCE is a premier engineering software development and services company that was established in 1989. Our offices are located in Farmington Hills, Michigan and Ramsey, New Jersey. CCE's products include translation software to exchange data between dissimilar CAD/CAM systems, visualization software to view CAD data, and product configurations to dramatically reduce time for creating CAD files for highly configurable product families. CCE specializes in a Partnership Approach to Engineering Services featuring multi-discipline CAD/CAM/CAE design, engineering, analysis, and translation services. CCE also specializes in software development and support services, which include CAD/CAM/CAE application development, Internet-based collaboration software development, and software quality assurance testing. CCE serves large and small engineering organizations and independent software vendors in all manufacturing sectors including Automotive, Aerospace, Medical, and Consumer Appliances. Products and Services are sold through its direct sales force and over 100 resellers worldwide.

Point clouds imported into EnSuite can be graphically compared against a CAD model. EnSuite produces a color error map of the point cloud vs. the CAD model by displaying the differences between the two in a range of colors. Color-coding greatly reduces the time required to identify and understand differences and evaluate their seriousness. For example, if a boss is too long or too short, the top of the boss will be highlighted in red. Color error maps make it possible to analyze problems in seconds that might take hours to understand when looking at point cloud coordinates in a spreadsheet.

The point cloud feature of EnSuite is particularly useful to quality assurance engineers in two scenarios – manufacturing QA and CAD QA. In manufacturing QA, the objective is to check for conformance of physical part to the CAD design. The manufactured part is inspected to generate a point cloud and the point cloud is imported into EnSuite. This manufactured part point cloud is then compared to the CAD model and any error in the manufactured part is visualized in a color map. The color error map clearly indicates whether or not the part conforms to the design and also helps diagnose problems in the manufacturing process.

In CAD QA, the objective is to check conformance of CAD model to the actual physical part, as in a reverse engineering process. The physical part is scanned (CMM) to generate a point cloud and a CAD model generated using the point clouds. The point cloud is imported into EnSuite and compared to the CAD model that has been created as part of the reverse engineering process and any error in the CAD model is visualized in a color error map. The color error map provides a clear indication of the quality of the CAD model and identifies any areas where improvement is needed.

Regarding point cloud manipulation, EnSuite still lacks this but it is planned to come up in future.

The latest EnSuite update will be available to all active subscription license customers as well as to new customers.

EnSuite goes far beyond the capabilities of conventional viewers and translators by providing a wide range of productivity tools for accessing critical engineering information. EnSuite prevents users from saving changes to the master CAD model to protect integrity of the master model. Licenses are automatically administered and the product updated over the Internet.

EnSuite is designed for companies that work in a multi-CAD environment, such as those used by customers, vendors and partners. EnSuite provides seamless interoperability with CATIA V4, CATIA V5, Pro/ENGINEER, Unigraphics, and SolidWorks CAD systems as well as Parasolid, IGES and STEP files. Files can be translated to and from any of these formats without the native CAD software.

http://www.cadcam-e.com/

http://www.tenlinks.com/news/PR/CADCAM-E/050608_pointcloud.htm

CCE EnSuite 2.0 Supports Point Cloud Files

Cad, PLC, ICs and oth.

When I mention about computer aided design (CAD) some of you occasionally admit it concerns component rapid manufacturing electronic automation which covers thing such as computer controlled of conveyor belt and PLC programming. In fact the two are very different in nature.

The domain of CAD is solely within software. To some extent it refers to how software is used helping integrated circuit (IC) designers to design ICs. These software are also sometimes referred to as CAD tools.



At the same time the higher abstraction level stage of the IC design demands ig creativity, while the the bottom level and details part of IC design can be very routine, repetitive, tedious and boring. The CAD tools help the designers in doing the repetitive and tedious tasks.

While in collage, students majoring in electronics learn basic electronic system design using small number of components called gates. Basic system can be construct with less than 10 gates. By their final year, the students will learn how to construct larger system which consists of up to hundreds of gates. This is not how it is done in the real world.

In the real world, a system such as the Intel Pentium 4 chip is constructed from 14 million gates. And with the current trend, it will not be long before we pass the one billion gates (in one chip) mark. This is so much different from what is thought in college. That is why in the real world, IC is design using different method.

On the very high level a system can be described using special languages, called hardware description language (HDL). Two most prominent HDLs are Verilog and VHDL. Verilog is widely used by designers in North America, and VHDL is widely by the european designers.

Instead of designing a system on gates level, using these languages a system is described at a higher level. Then a software is used to translate this high level description into gates level. This process is called synthesis, and the software is referred to as a synthesis tool. One line in HDL can be translated by the synthesis tool into few gates. Synthesis tool is one of the examples of CAD tool.

Even before a design using HDL is processed by a synthesis tool, there are other CAD tools that can be used by the designers to check if their HDL codes follow certain rules and guidelines. These CAD tools are called rule checker software. The HDL design is check again good circuit design guideline in order to catch possible error which can caused circuit failure when it is converted into gates.

Network of connected gates which are synthesized are called net list.There are various verification CAD tools can be used to analyze a net list. The tools can be a static tools which can look at a net list and resolve it functionality mathematically. There are also dynamic tools such as simulators which look at how the circuit behave virtually when it is operating. Simulated input voltages and currents are fed into the net list, and the simulated output is shown to the designer.

Using these verification tools, designers can verify that their design work - at least in controlled simulated environment. Final verification of the actual chip is still needed because the long and intricate manufacturing process can cause problem to a circuit which not counted in during a simulated verification.

Using various CAD tools,such as synthesis tools,rule checkers and verification tools today designers have been able to create a chip which contains multi million gates in it. Other than synthesis, there are also other CAD tools that help designers with other process of an IC design such as layout tools, and timing verification tools.

The trend is to move into high abstraction using higher level language, which is more abstract than the HDLs such as C or C++ programming languages and let the software to do more and more task in generating the gates. Enabling of the use of C or C++ in designing a hardware system is done with the goal that it will convert some of the software engineers become hardware designers.

Cad, PLC, ICs and oth.